Canadian Teen Racks Up $7.6K in Charges in FIFA

Legitimately inadvertent, or playing dad for a fool?

A 17-year old from Pembroke, Ontario has made international headlines recently after racking up a bill of $7,625.88 CAD through in-game purchases made by credit card in a FIFA game on Xbox One late last year.

The teen had been issued a credit card by his father, Lance Perkins, in case of emergency or for when purchases needed to be made for the family’s convenience store. However, he alleges that he thought the purchase was a “one time” thing.

“He thought it was a one-time fee for the game,” Perkins told CBC News. “He’s just as sick as I am, [because] he never believed he was being charged for every transaction, or every time he went onto the game.”

Perkins attempted to rectify the situation by contacting both his credit card company and Microsoft themselves. The latter stated that the bill would stand, though they would look into things due to the younger Perkins being a minor. “Purchases made using a parent’s payment account are legitimate transactions under the Microsoft Services Agreement, and we encourage parents to use the many platform and service features we make available to prevent unapproved charges,” noted a statement from Microsoft.

The credit card company, on the other hand, said they could only do something if the elder Perkins was willing to charge his son with fraud.

CBC News has posted a sampling of different public opinions regarding the matter; some sympathize with the father, insomuch as they feel he’s being played for a fool by his son. Others believe he should be monitoring his son’s activity more closely, and still others think there is more that either the credit card company or Microsoft could have done, particularly when the purchases went in excess of $500.

Ian Ferguson and Pat Contri of ThePunkEffect.com’s CUPodcast seem to believe the fault does not lie with the companies, explaining in greater detail how the teen would have to know what was happening when he made the purchases (Not Safe For Work):

Regardless of fault, Perkins has taken the most extreme measure he can to ensure there won’t be repeat incidents by outright banning all gaming systems from his home, Xbox or otherwise. Here’s hoping that he doesn’t have any other kids who are into video games.